Don't waste the time or money - ruckmen are the most overrated stock in the AFL

The debate about ruckmen rages ever on.

Most football people with half a brain knew Max Gawn and Brodie Grundy weren’t going to work at the same club, and that it was ludicrous for Melbourne to recruit the latter. While both have been adequate this season when playing in the same team, what’s the point of adequate when you’ve got the premier ruckman in the game being diluted so?

Grundy was dropped last week, to “work on his forward craft” as Demons’ General Manager of AFL Football Performance Alan Richardson put it, and Gawn responded to rucking solo by producing one of the best games of his career.

From 92 percent game time he had 29 disposals (a mark he has only bettered twice before), an equal career high 10 clearances, seven tackles, 39 hit outs, three contested marks and a goal. All of this happened while Brisbane controlled the middle 90 minutes of the game, by the way.

If you’ve got a gun ruckman, that’s great, and you might as well use them to their full capacity rather than trying to shoehorn a second one in there with them. But the fact is you don’t need one to create a strong team, and you’re actually better off without them.

History backs this up.

Max Gawn and Mason Cox. (Photo by Darrian Traynor/Getty Images).

Apart from Gawn himself, who led Melbourne to the 2021 flag as a homegrown ruck product, Geelong won the premiership last year with maligned St Kilda outcast Rhys Stanley in the primary role. Toby Nankervis was fourth in line at Sydney under John Longmire and helped Richmond win three flags. The Western Bulldogs didn’t even bother with a proper ruckman through the 2016 finals series, and just threw the nearest full back and full forward they could find into the position.

In 2018 West Coast relied on Scott Lycett, a jobber at best, and Nathan Vardy, who could barely string three games together for most of his career. This was after years of headlines saying Nic Naitanui was the key to any Eagles flag hopes, and weeks after he went down with a knee and every second expert declared their premiership dreams over.

Hawthorn relied on Ben McEvoy, a good ordinary player, to get the job done in their threepeat, and in the first of those he had support from a bloke that had near on half a dozen knee reconstructions. The Hawks were beaten decisively in the hit outs in each of those flags. The irony being they won the hit outs in the grand final against Sydney in 2012, but lost the game.

Collingwood is unquestionably the premier team in the competition and it’s clear that Craig McRae gets it, given he was the one that cast aside Brodie Grundy after the club had given him a seven year contract before McRae arrived.

The Pies have relied on the motley crew of Darcy Cameron (another Sydney reject), Billy Frampton (who couldn’t get a game at either Adelaide club), and Mason Cox, who is literally just a tall guy they found in another country.

Port, the second best team, has Scott Lycett in his 13th season, understanding that all you really need is a 200cm lump with a pulse that can negate the opposition and win the odd hit out and clearance. Lycett averages one mark and less than four kicks a game this season, yet the Power sit five games inside the top four.

Rowan Marshall. (Photo by Sarah Reed/AFL Photos via Getty Images)

Brisbane has Oscar McInerney, who was rookie listed at the age of 23 and has been able to forge a career. St Kilda has wasted most of Rowan Marshall’s career by pairing him with Paddy Ryder instead of just letting him have at it, and using that extra resource elsewhere on the ground.

Ultimately, you can find a decent ruckman anywhere, and that’s all you need. If you happen to draft and develop a good one, then so be it, but clubs shouldn’t waste the time. You can always pick the eyes out of the third best one somewhere in the AFL that isn’t getting a game, or just prise one out of the second tier leagues.

Clubs certainly shouldn’t waste valuable salary cap on an elite ruck, as Collingwood did. And nor should they bring in a big name ruck when already in possession of one, as Melbourne did. Until the clubs wise up, all we can do is sit back, laugh, and say “we told you so”.